Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-04-18
JOAQUIN MILLER.
HE TELLS OF THE ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES OF SHASTA.

He Would Not Settle in That Land I'm
less He Could BE Sure OF q Good Sup
ply of water-The Hills Better Than
the Valleys.
Especial Correspondence
SHASTA CITY, Cal, April 1.
In this letter I must leave out myself
and tell you of the country, as promised.
This land is well timbered, and could as well
as not be well watered. 1t is singularly fine
place for fruit. Figs grow on many of the
red and rocky hillsides without the least care
or culture. l once found an old hermit back
of town in the hills, who gave me bowl of
milk and plate OF dried figs. This. he as
sured me, was his only food. His COW feeds
on the wild oats that grow up and down the
gulch, and the figs grow in rank abundance,
always with profusion Of grapes about his
cabir door. He cures his figs simply by
tying them up in bag, and turning the bag
over few times as it lies the long, hot
autumn month drying on the stone wall be-
fore the cabin. But all kinds of fruit, from
oranges to apples, do well in Shasta county.
l must explain that there is as yet no cannery
here, and so the demand for fruit is merely
a cannery is only question Of time. This
canning is sort of Wall street establish
Inent That is, it givss a solid and a certain
value to all sorts of fruit soon as it is estab
lished For example, had friend in Oak
land, or near there, the other day, who was
in need of little money. He went to one of
the fruit canneries and cashed his fruit as
readily as if it had been a check, selling it at
so much an acre. And, mind you, this is be-
fore the trees are yet in blossom. These can
neries referred to send their produce direct to
Chicago.
Land here is cheap. l bought 640 acres
within a few miles of this spot for 81. so per
acre last year l bought of the railroad,
paying only 20 per cent. down. There is
plenty of other land as cheap and just as
good to be had on tine same terms, think.
And there is plenty of land to be had of pri-
vate individuals at very reasonable rates.
For Shasta is but thinly settled, there having
boon no market here for anything since the
mines gradually melted away. But this
new road now, pointing straight to Oregon,
and on the eve OF completion, will give new
turn to affairs here, and that right soon.
If 1 were to advise you with regard to
seeking lard here l would suggest that you
hug the hills rather closely. There is little
malaria down in the rich lands in the lower
part Of the country. True, the hills are hard
to handle, being stony and often covered
with chaparral, but they are rich and the
very land for fruit and vines. The land that
l have bought is steep and in places very
stony, but l am sure there is a future in it
for many families if / can only settle the
place up with industrious and contented
people who are willing to plant and wait.
We are on the extreme limit of the thermal
belt to the north. Both the latitude and the
altitude forbid that fruit of the warmer
c!imes, or the finer kinds OF grapes, can grow
to perfection north of this spot And so you
| see ali Oregon, Washington Territory and
Montana and Idaho as well will have to be
supplied from California And as this is the
nearest point of California to these places
you can see the argument for planting fruit
i'll Shasta without any further statement of
| mine.
There are a great many cattle in the foot
hills here, and hogs flourish wonderfully. For
The whole country is sown with scattered
forests Of acorn bcnring oaks. But, as said
before, there has been market for any thing
here for nearly a quarter of century; 50
that this part of California has Ianguisheti
greatly and is far behind other parts of the
sinte that have no better natural advantages
than Shasta.
But must repeat, and feel like repeating 1t
over and over again, that if you come to set
tie here you must first be certain that Won
have, or can get, plenty Of good water on
your grounds For l don't want your blame
on my head when you are scorched to death
IN August and September. And let me warn
you 81. D aG1i..1t tru ting too mutL to appear
ances here il the spring. The truth is this
Shasta is q firt, and vii! deceive almost any
| man who does not know 'her tricks and her
manners" of old. For example, in March
April ard Nay you will see her all smiles and
roses The whole mountain sides, every little
hill and every little valley is glorious with
waving green grass and beautiful blue and
yellow and red blossoms. 1t looks like an
Eden; the air is so sweet you can feed upon
it. You feel at such times that YOU have
surely found the Promised Land But wait.
Along in July the grass begins to turn brown.
In August it is literally burned black In Sep
tember the ground fairly glows from the
heat. Every little gulch and creek and canyon
III t has not living water in it is fiery FIR
mace. But with water, what garden a man
can make here i'll this soil with all this fcryid
sun at his back!
Taking it all in all, l SHOULD say, with this
certain precaution about water, that Shasta
county is about the best part of the world
that | have passed over OH this trip to settle
in, especially il a man is alone and not full
| handed But do not think large companies
OF rich men could operate nearly so well here
rs III the broad. rich lands of Arizona in the
region OF Fort Bowie, v hich have previously
described.
Fish here are abundant and of the best
San Francisco takes tons of mountain front
every year from these cool, sweet mountain
streams, and yet the trout seem only to in
crease The government has established a
| hatchery" here for the purpose of procuring
the eggs of trout and salmon 1t may not be
generally known that up to Il recent date our
| government WAS in the habit of procuring all
its fish eggs from Canada.
Did you ever see them "milk" the eggs from
the fish. 1t is so curious and yet SO simple
that will tell You briefly how it is done. A
large female salmon, conspicuouSly large from
the great abundance of eggs she contains, is
taken from the river with u net. then a man
takes her by the tail and lays her back up along
his bare arm and with his right hand .milks
stream after stream of bright golden eggs
into a wooden tub. After taking many
pounds of eggs in this way the fish is dropped
back INTO the river, and she swims away good
naturedlv, as IL rather glad of what has han